We're All Journalists Now
The Transformation of the Press and Reshaping of the Law in the Internet Age
Chapter One: We're All Journalists Now
The pantheon of modern American journalists is occupied by familiar names, like Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Walter Cronkite, Mike Wallace, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly. Wait a minute...Rush Limbaugh? Bill O'Reilly? Yes, according to a poll conducted in 2005, 40 percent of respondents identified Bill O'Reilly as a journalist, while only 30 percent said the same of Bob Woodward -- slightly more than Rush Limbaugh's 27 percent.
Perhaps these results should not be surprising. After all, what is a journalist? What differentiates journalists from other people disseminating ideas and information to the public? Today, the answer is hardly self-evident, and depends very much on whom you ask.
The most recent edition of the New Oxford American Dictionary, published in 2005, defines journalism as the "activity or profession of writing for newspapers or magazines or of broadcasting news on radio or television." The focus on these four sp ... read full excerpt from: We're All Journalists Now: The Transformation of the Press and Reshaping of the Law in the Internet Age ebook
